Kumquat and Vanilla Bean Pâte is one of the 3 French Fruit Pâtes I made this week. Be sure to check out my recipes for blood orange pâtes and Meyer lemon and rosemary pâtes.
Read MoreBlood Orange Pâte (Fruit Jelly)
Blood Orange Pâte is one of the 3 French Fruit Pâtes I made this week. Be sure to check out my recipes for Meyer lemon and rosemary pâtes and kumquat and vanilla bean pâtes.
Read MoreVanilla Pastry Cream
Pastry cream is one of the most versatile recipes in a professional pastry kitchen (and your home). It is used for the filling of eclairs, napoleons, fruit tarts, banana cream pie, trifle, and just scooped out of the bowl with a spoon. It is essentially “kick-ass” vanilla pudding, to quote one of my former bosses. It can be scented with vanilla, in fact I always start with vanilla pastry cream and then add flavors to it. I’ve made everything from Thai chili-chocolate to passion fruit pastry cream. Here is the basic vanilla pastry cream recipe to start with!
This is an old post with old photos (I’ve come a long way with my camera since then)…
Read MoreTropical Fruit Vacherins (Meringue Cups)
Last weekend I co-hosted a Thai dinner party for 6 women. My friends Toni and Jen came over and we cooked up a storm of fresh dumplings, Tom Yam soup, green papaya salad and a spicy beef coconut curry with lime scented rice. It was a feast to be sure. I wanted to create a dessert that would fit the theme of our Thai dinner, look gorgeous and be light enough to eat after we had stuffed them full.
I made tropical fruit vacherins; cups of fluffy meringues baked until crisp. I served the vacherins filled with three different tropical sorbets: passion fruit, mango and coconut. That would have been enough, but this was a party and I wanted it to be a little more celebratory, so I added a tropical fruit tower on a pool of mango creme Anglaise. It was divine and their wasn’t a morsel left on the plates.
Read MoreCreme Anglaise (Vanilla Sauce)
Creme Anglaise is one of the most versatile sauces in the pastry kitchen. It is wonderful served with chocolate cake, as the sauce for floating island and as the base for lots of ice creams. It is also a creamy contrast to fruit desserts such as my tropical fruit vacherin, where I added mango puree to add a bright flavor to the sauce.
I always start with a simple vanilla flavored sauce and then add flavors to it to suit my dessert.
Read MoreButter Shortbread Cookies
Last week was my aunt Kristin’s birthday, and she had only one request of me: butter shortbread cookies. She is a woman of very discerning tastes and gave me explicit directions on just how she wanted them baked. They were to be thick, delicate, not too sweet, a light dusting of very fine sugar and above all else, buttery! As some of you may have noticed, my aunt Kristin is one of my pastry muses. She doesn’t bake much herself, but she has a keen sweet tooth and can recognize a great recipe, without ever making it.
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